Trump finally walks down Pennsylvania Avenue on January 6, 2021, two and a half years after a mob attacked the Capitol in his name.
A federal court arraignment is planned this time around.
Trump is anticipated to arrive in Washington on Thursday afternoon; he will be taken to the federal courtroom directly across the street from the Capitol that his fans damaged on January 6 in order to face allegations that he intended to obstruct the transfer of power to Joe Biden. He will likely enter a “not guilty” plea to the four felony counts brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith claims that Trump is plotting a massive campaign to undermine American democracy and keep him in office even though he will lose the 2020 election. Smith claims that in order to prevent Biden’s election, Trump enlisted the help of six co-conspirators, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro. This group used the threat of legal action to spread false information and gain support from state legislatures, Congress, and then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Smith says that Trump exploited his presidential status to fuel conspiracy theories about election fraud and energise his base, which he then used to put pressure on Republican authorities to try to overturn Biden’s victories in a few states. When it didn’t work, Trump assisted in putting together fraudulent presidential elector slates that were intended to create tension during Biden’s victory’s official certification. Then, Trump and Eastman relied on Pence, who was going to preside over Congress’ tallying of electoral votes, to make a historic statement by rejecting Biden’s electors or delaying the count. As a result of the effort’s failure, thousands of Trump supporters flooded past police barricades and into the Capitol, and Trump, according to Smith, used the violence to keep trying to save his projects.
According to the information gathered by the select committee on January 6, Trump planned to join his followers in the riots. The Secret Service declined to transport him to the Capitol due to security concerns, and several witnesses described a furious fight between the two parties. But the Secret Service wouldn’t let him leave the White House, so he stayed there and watched the attack on TV.
The four felonies with which Smith has charged Trump are: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to deprive Americans of their right to a functional election process; conspiracy to hinder Congress’s proceedings on January 6; and the commission of these acts.
On Thursday at 4 o’clock, he will be formally charged with a crime. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, who got the initial indictment from prosecutors on Tuesday, will hear the case against Trump on Friday. Trump will be arraigned for the third time on criminal charges since April, but this will be his first appearance in the nation’s capital. Although the matter is unlikely to progress much further than Trump’s initial plea, officials at the federal courthouse and the Capitol are preparing for crowds and potential security threats.
Starting on Wednesday, there were clearly more security guards and street parking was severely limited around the courthouse. When asked by reporters whether his officers were “prepared” for the possibility of an indictment against Trump, Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said that they had been collaborating with other law enforcement agencies for weeks.
Tanya Chutkan, a federal district court judge nominated by Obama who earlier denied the president’s request to prevent congressional investigators from accessing his White House files on January 6th, is set to preside over the case.
Trump has denied Smith’s accusations, calling them politically motivated and claiming he acted in accordance with legal counsel as he took more risky and destabilising measures to stay in office.